Internet, Mobile Ads to Grow at Expense of TV, Desktop

Programmatic advertising will comprise some 60% of digital display advertising in 2016.

At the same time, Internet advertising is projected to overtake television ads for the first time in 2018. Mobile ads will overtake desktop ads by that time as well.

Those predictions are from ZenithOptimedia.

The ad trend forecaster said global ad spending will reach $579B by the end of 2015, some 0.8 percentage points over the prior year.

Mobile will account for 87% of all the new ad dollars in the global ad market in the period to 2018, it said, adding that mobile spending will more than double in the next three years to $114 billion, putting it ahead of all other media except television.

Programmatic advertising has risen to dominate the digital display market in just a few years, having accounted for just 12% of display adspend in 2012. Programmatic adspend grew from US$5bn in 2012 to US$38bn in 2015.

While television is now the dominant advertising medium, with a 37% share of total adspend in 2015, the forecaster predicts the Internet will take this role in 2018. “We think television’s share peaked at 39.7% in 2012, estimate it at 37.7% in 2015, and expect it to fall back to 34.8% by 2018,” according to ZenithOptimedia.